MS Dhoni, the most
successful captain of India in all forms of the game, has called time on his
test career with immediate effect. The third test of the Border-Gavaskar series
that was played in Melbourne and had ended in a draw was the last appearance in
whites for the veteran wicketkeeper. He would not be playing in Sydney and its
Virat Kohli who would be leading India there.
Dhoni himself did not
announce his retirement to the media. He addressed the media earlier today and
talked about the third test, but, he did not drop any hints that his test
career was over. It’s actually the Board for Control of Cricket in India which
released a statement for the media later on that the Indian captain had left
the game with immediate effect and in the final game of the series; India would
be going with a new captain and a new wicketkeeper batsman.
People are trying to guess
what could have been the factor behind this sudden departure of the Indian
captain, but, it was more or less on the expected lines. Dhoni knew his time
was up. He is a guy who, all through his life, has put the team ahead of the
personal interests and once he was convinced that there was somebody who could
do the job better than him, he was never going to try to stay on.
Virat Kohli would now get
the permanent job, but, the young man should not be expected to take India up
in the test match rankings very quickly because the team that he is going to
get from his predecessor is nowhere near as experienced as ideally needed. The
batting department, in particular, is so young. It’s good that Sydney test is
going to be India’s last overseas test in a while and Virat will be able to
find his feet as test captain in home games. Captaining this young side in
overseas conditions straightaway would have been very tough for him.
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